ECB: New European card scheme is "piece still missing in the SEPA puzzle"

In her speech, the ECB representative also stressed that the current stagnation in the work underlying the SEPA for Cards Framework (SCF) needs to be overcome by tackling problems on three main fronts. The three problem areas have to do with the business rules for SCF, the technical standards (that is, card and terminal specifications, applications, messages and protocols) and finally with the launch of one or more new European card schemes.

Tumpel-Gugerell has indicated that currently, individual card schemes “apply rules that function as barriers to competition and need to be removed”. To that end, she pointed out that the ECB regards the launch of a new European card scheme as a major possible contributor the success of SEPA for cards.

She also quoted joint research carried out by De Nederlandsche Bank and the ECB that “has shown that a new European card scheme could provide a decisive impetus to solving interoperability and overcoming costly fragmentation in the European market for cards”. The ECB thus believes that consumers and merchants in the card payments market are likely to benefit most from SEPA if there is sufficient competition. “Europe needs Visa and MasterCard, since they are currently the only schemes that offer a pan-European card payment solution. But we also need sufficient competition” Tumpel-Gugerell stressed.